31 December 2009 1:21 PM

What to do when skiing turns slushy on the piste

Snow has generally favoured the higher resorts in the main alpine skiing nations while mild weather has plagued some lower ski areas with unrelenting rain over the last forty-eight hours.

In Villars, Switzerland, where I am, the deluge of rain has turned the lower sections of the home run, from Bretaye at 1,800 meters to resort at 1,300 meters, into an almost impassable bog of muddy brown slush, perforated by sheet ice.

To escape the slush most of the many thousands of Christmas holiday skiers are opting to sample resort restaurants, spa facilities, skating rink, bowling alley and shops.

Within an hour’s drive it is possible to reach Chamonix in France and Verbier in the neighbouring Swiss canton of Valais, where the higher slopes above 2,000 meters are enjoying fresh snow as opposed to rain damaged pistes.

But it is not all doom and gloom for Villars, the most reliable weather forecast in these parts has spotted a northerly front which is expected to immerse our 100 kilometers of pistes in minus 12 degree clouds, allowing for some desperately needed snow.

Everybody in the resort, who by now are getting fed up with backgammon and scrabble in their hotels and chalets and starting to reread their holiday novels, are keeping everything that can be - without causing undue pain - well and truely crossed!

The authorities at Villars have been promising for more than a decade to put extensive snowmaking systems in that will protect the vital home run into the resort because they apparently understand that downloading by gondola or train at high season involves much queuing, is fundamentally boring and decidedly NOT how high paying lift pass holders wish to end their skiing day.

Skiers and snowboarders want and deserve a good last blast, an exhilarating run home so that they can head to a bar and rave about their day over a few beers.

Many people who come to Villars loyally every year are starting to say to me that if they have to spend money on hiring a car so that they can drive to higher resorts, or to those resorts which have bothered to install snowmaking systems in vital areas, they might as well just take their whole holiday in one of those higher resorts.

Villars loyalists are starting to revolt and I cannot blame them. Empty promises by lack-lustre, short-term-thinking, money-grabbing authorities, need to now urgently turn into overdue action. In these high pressured times of climate change and recession, lower resorts like Villars need to wake up and realise that tourists provide their profits and always have other resort choices.

If your favourite resort in the Alps is low and suffers from lack of snowmaking systems, please let us know your thoughts- click here to comment.